WASHINGTON — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan released his fiscal 2017 budget in Annapolis on Wednesday, but instead of briefing reporters, his budget secretary David Brinkley laid out the details.
Asked why Hogan didn’t unveil his own budget, Brinkley told reporters that key elements of the governor’s spending plans were outlined in the past two weeks.
Brinkley said Hogan was involved in planning for the coming snowstorm that’s predicted to dump lots of snow on the region.
The $42 billion budget includes full funding for GCEI, the geographic cost of education index funding that Prince George’s and Montgomery County officials say is critical for its schools.
Brinkley said education is fully funded at record levels across the state; lawmakers say that’s due to the fact that legislation requires it.
The plan offers tax relief in the form of rollbacks on some taxes and fees: a total of $100 million over the next five years.
What’s missing, though, is how Gov. Hogan plans to pay for an ambitious recovery project for Baltimore city. Recently, Hogan announced a $700 million plan to level blighted areas of the city and revive those neighborhoods.
But after a breakfast briefing, some lawmakers said they left wondering where that money would come from.
At the briefing with reporters, Brinkley said with a cash surplus in the budget, the administration hopes to fund that recovery effort on a pay-go basis.
The state’s general fund for fiscal year 2017 is about $17.1 billion.
The plan includes a budget surplus of about $449 million, and a Rainy Day Fund of about $1.1 billion.
The budget plan now goes to the General Assembly, which will be working on it for most of the legislative session, which ends in April.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
